Democrat Greg Stanton breezed past Republican Wes Gullett to capture Phoenix’s mayoral post in spirited race that centered heavily on lifting America’s sixth largest city out of the economic doldrums it has felt since its housing market tanked.

The 41-year-old former City Council member branded Gullett as a lobbyist beholden to special interests and cast himself as the leading voice for diversifying an economy that has been vulnerable to volatile swings like it experienced during the boom and bust of the housing market.

“Our vision is about helping our small businesses thrive and lifting up our entrepreneurs and innovators so we can create the jobs of the future,” Stanton said in a speech to supporters.

Phoenix is among America’s cities that are hardest hit by the housing crisis. The city has been dogged by home foreclosures, and housing prices have reached their lowest points since the housing bust more than four years ago. And the unemployment rate has hovered around 8 percent this year for Phoenix and the surrounding cities that make up the metro area.

Stanton said his priorities included improving funding for early childhood education and making after-school programs based more on academics. He also aims to make the city’s economy more diverse with a focus on technology and health care jobs, rather than relying on growth on the desert’s edge as was done in the past.

David Berman, senior research fellow at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, said Gullett couldn’t corral enough from Republicans who had been eliminated earlier in the race and suffered from Stanton’s criticism that his opponent was a lobbyist who wouldn’t look out for the people’s interests.

“Stanton was pretty well known and had good party support,” Berman said. “I think Gullett was probably not well known, and the people who thought of him often thought of him as a lobbyist.”

A Democrat also won the mayor’s race in Tucson. Attorney Jonathan Rothschild, who defeated Republican Rick Grinnell, will be the first Democrat to be Tucson’s mayor since 1999.

Stanton served nine years on the City Council before resigning in February 2009 to accept a job as a top official in the state Attorney General’s Office. Stanton has since left the Attorney General’s Office.

The election broke a city record for voter turnout with 27 percent of Phoenix’s registered voters casting ballots. The 160,000 votes cast on Tuesday broke the previous record of 143,000 set in 1989.

Gullett, a former aide to Sen. John McCain and now a partner in a political consulting firm that does lobbying work, ran on a platform of job creation, repealing a sales tax on groceries, lowering water rates and overhauling compensation for city employees.

Gullett accused the former City Council member of being a status-quo career politician who’s out of touch with people’s need to make ends meet.

Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesman for the Gullett campaign, said the Republican candidate conceded the race to Stanton and wouldn’t likely speak to reporters Tuesday night about his loss.

Scarpinato said Gullett was proud that his message of shaking up City Hall left its mark on the race. “It was a dialogue that we needed to have and wouldn’t have otherwise have had,” Scarpinato said.